Have to agree that the TV here is crap and paying approx $80/month for MySKY, it's not really money well spent.

So today I returned the SKY box and we are now using Freeview, with a recorder so we get to watch Masterchef!

What I have also sorted out, because we have a AppleTV, is a Netflix account. Which gives us access to tons of content from the US, including films, TV series (including BBC ones) and heaps of stuff for the kids. We can also access the US amazon site for video on demand. Our Interent connection is fast enough to stream HD programs without stuttering.

So win win all round. We get to watch what we want when we want, no ad's and at a cost of $7.99/month (USD).

If you are wondering how I set up a US Netflix account, I used this service, which I understand will also allow a UK Netflix setup if you prefer.

http://unblock-us.com/

Sounds promising, I'd be interested to see how much of your monthly internet allowance this eats up. Please could you let me know how it's going in a month or two?
My next project is to get BBC iplayer working reliably with a proxy server - can't wait for the next series of The thick of it.

Hi Mark, it cost me a extra $10/month to jump from 40GB to 160GB from telecom. On top of Netflix, we used Spotify for music streaming. I'll let everyone know what our usage is and any issues at the end of the month.

With Quickflix (like a crap Netflix) you get free data usage through Orcon. It's $16 a month and it's possible to watch on your TV. Hopefully the new TV service 'Igloo' launches this month which is $25 a month and you get BBC Knowledge, UKTV and a fair few more.

I'll still be downloading most of the stuff we watch though, I've got 200GB a month to go at now so I'll be downloading everything and anything.

Cheers for this. I'll be interested to know how it goes on.
We've been thinking of ditching sky also but also need to upgrade our TV etc.

Interesting thread.

Im still UK side and have a UK Freesat decoder. If I bring that over with me, does anybody know if it will pick up the kiwi Freesat stuff?

I used the internet for TV for the first time recently, (as we didn't get the sky sorted out quick enough). Whilst impressed with the quality on a 40 minute programme it did stutter a few times which is BLOODY annoying, but it's not yet put me off and I'd be interested in your outcome. Keep us posted please

No it won't, the polarity of the satellite signal differs from the European satellites.

So, how is this going?? I'm looking to ditch Sky and now have the bandwidth to play with.....

I have just cancelled Sky Sports now the Olympics is over. Not bothered with ITM cup.
Moved from VF Ultimate package to Naked broadband and with my on account mobile phone I get a little bit more discount.
Vodafone will pay for the sky box rental so all good there.

After time you realise what you do and don't need.

Worried about moving from VF for the broadband, I do get some good speeds here.

So far so good! We watch anything between 1-4 hrs worth of content a day.

There a couple of technical issues to get to grips with.

The Unblock-us.com site requires the IP address of your PC/Laptop to be able to route the location information. If I then use my laptop on a different wireless network (like when I take it out of the house) I have to "reactivate" it when I get back to use the Netflix content, otherwise it won't work. Takes 5secs, so no biggie, but took a while to work out what the problem was.

We get the occasional "Netflix is unavilable" message, but I just retry and it works fine.

Netflix has great content for the kids and we can control what they watch and when they watch it. For us we get ad free TV series, many of which have had no NZ air time (as far as I aware).

It does have a large selection of movies, but we have found that we have not watched as much as we could have, but it's nice to have the choice.

Have found browsing the Netflix website and adding content to our "queue" was much quicker than using the search function via the Apple TV.

Not checked our broadband usage yet, but been delighted that the speed has been good enough to sustain a good constant HD stream to two Apple TV's and the usual websurfing. Surprised as we live in a semi rural area.

Interestingly Sky has been very proactive in trying to get me back, as I have until the end of the month to return the SKY Box. They have offered me either half price for six months or two free premium channels on top of what I have. I have had two phone calls from them trying to get me back. So if anyone is with SKY, threaten them with cancelling and see what they have to offer.

Asked husband about this:

Got rid of Sky, switched to Orcon from Telstra with 200gb and saved $130 a month.

Got an Apple TV, using unblock-us is about $10 a month

Netflix and Hulu Plus cost about $30 a month, charged through a US itunes store account

We buy the odd itunes gift voucher online for the US store - about $40 a month, and use those to rent movies and buy season passes

Our data is about 170 gb a month

So we save a bit, not a huge amount, but prefer the selection to sky, and theres a lot of stuff over iTunes, netflix and hulu to watch

Just a qucik update. Our Broadband usage for the month of Sept was 59GB, with a limit of 160GB, we are well in our cap.

Everything is running well otherwise.

Thanks for the info, I hate giving money to Sky and we've been searching for an alternative for a while now.

Just one question:
*Techno-phobe alert* Just putting that out there first

So do you access BBC streamed programmes via Apple TV (with the unlock-us software) or is that via Freeview?

Hiya. I do not have access to the BBC per se. But I do access a streaming service called Netflix via the Apple TV, which carries some BBC content (Sherlock, Dr Who, Luther etc). Netflix is a US based service and its content heavily reflects that.